In the past few years public attention has been drawn to the fact that modern energy efficient sealed buildings often recycle air, through poorly maintained duct systems to such a degree that the air eventually may become unhealthy. Contaminates in carpets and fibers, paints, inks, copying machinery, smoke, and/or radon emissions, may collect in the ambient air of a building to concentrations that may have adverse affects on the health of the building's occupants.
In order to determine the extent of such contamination, it is useful to provide means of analyzing the air for the presence of these various contaminants.
For some time now, there has been available simple glass tubes filled with chromatographic material. The chromatographic material reacts to the presence of specific contaminants in the ambient air by changing color. Such color changes provide qualitative and/or quantitative measurements of the concentrations of these contaminants.
In order to provide specific results from these chromatographic tubes, it is necessary to draw measured quantities of air through the chromatographic material. It is the object of this invention to provide a simple and inexpensive device for measuring and propelling the quantities of air which are drawn through such a tube.